The Clock
by Oak-and-Iron
Summary: A little one-shot in which Rosalee finds something that takes Monroe's breath away.


**My first Grimm fic, I hope to write something longer but since I haven't seen the new episodes this little one-shot is all I can manage. It's a little bit of fluff I think too.**

**Enjoy! Review!**

** Disclaimer: I own nothing**

* * *

The morning was dragging on slowly, taking a day off to go through her brother's basement appeared to be a rather poor choice. Rosalee cut through another taped up box and peered inside, a black envelope sat among a pile of random mismatched trinkets. Her brother must have been a secret hoarder or something, nothing else could explain some of the dusty old artifacts under his house. She'd made a pile of things to take to the shop, things she wanted for herself, things to send to distant cousins, and a donation pile. The last being the smallest because she feared, her brother being more experienced than she that some items may prove dangerous to donatees.

She picked up the envelope gingerly and sniffed it to make sure it wasn't filled with something unpleasant before opening it. What was inside appeared to be an invoice of some sort. It read : "For a trade of constant care", which seemed to translate into several sales of quite expensive treatments, " Item one of one" with no further description, the name at the bottom listed an H. Jung. The mystery would be intriguing if she hadn't been tearing open boxes for four hours. Tossing down the paper in defeat she walked up the stairs to contemplate the idea of trading so much for one thing, sounded like poor business management to her.

Rosalee stared down at her tea, the bag bobbing slowly in the coloring water while the name bounced around in her head. She didn't know of anyone by that name, it was German obviously but so common that it didn't really mean much else. She warmed her hands on the cup and carried it back down the steps to continue her work.

The small basement was carpeted in opened cardboard boxes and the walls were lined with unopened ones. In places where a box would not fit stood large items gathering dust such as a beautiful oval shaped standing mirror she kept glancing at. Also an ugly depiction of a native man carved out of wood and a broken high backed chair. She brushed the dusted velour of the seat and looked around the boxes for any labels that might lead to the item H Jung gave her brother. The boxes were stacked far enough apart that they created small passages, resembling a cardboard library. At the end of the passage a tall box with the words " Fragile handle with the utmost care" was written in short hand several times, below which the name Jung was written in capital letters.

" Ah-ha!" She exclaimed and tittered a bit at her outburst, she put both hands in the side of the box to test it's weight. Whatever was inside was incredibly heavy. She decided to carefully cut along the seam of the box to make a sort of swinging door, when she got it open she gasped and immediately grabbed her phone.

" Hi Monroe. Are you busy?" She asked while staring at H. Jung's gift, " You should come over to my house. Yes, really as soon as possible if you can... Thanks." She smiled and hung up the phone only to quickly turn it over and take a picture, sending it to Nick with the message: "Monroe is going to freak out over this". To which she receive a simple reply of, " Oh man..."

* * *

_Breathe, let everything else around you fall away. Breathe..._

The mantra went over and over in Monroe's head as he held a particular yoga position that was meant to transition into another, just as he began to move his phone rang making him loose his balance and plop down on the floor. Belly on the ground he reached up to the table and looked at the screen before answered.

" Yeah?" He answered while standing up and rolling up his mat, another part of his routine interrupted.

"Not really I guess, why what's up? Oh, uh, yeah okay..." He answered feeling a bit confused as well as concerned. Rosalee hadn't invited him over to her house since they first met, part of him worried there was something wrong while the other hoped she just wanted to see him. Either way he was out the door a moment later and drove entirely too fast to reach her house.

As he rushed up to the door he felt his stomach get heavy with nervousness,_ don't let there be anything wrong, and dude.. don't be so awkward this time_. He thought to himself as Rosalee threw the door open.

"Hey," She said curtly, " Get in here." She said and turned away from him, leaving the door open for him to come through and close. She walked silently until she got to the basement steps, he was just about to ask when she explained, "I've been looking through my brother's things...and well, I found something you might be interested in." She said with a sly smile.

Monroe gave her a confused look, shrugged and motioned that they should continue to the basement. She had him stand at the opening to the hall of boxes, and went forward to unveil her treat.

Monroe threw his hands up and ran them back through his hair, his mouth agape in surprise and awe. After a long moment he let out a breath he'd been holding and spoke.

" Do, do you know what that is.." He stuttered as he stepped forward.

" Well no, not really." She admitted, he'd come up close to study what looked to be a clock with some incredible detail. It had two large faces, the top most having an outer ring of characters and a smaller ring in the left topmost part of the first ring. Behind it were arching lines of gold that led to roman numerals that ringed the inner edge of the first circle. The lower face held 12 golden rings that may tell the phases of the moon. She literally had no idea what the thing did, except possibly kill Monroe since he looked so pale now.

He placed a hand on her back which, combined with their closeness in the small passage sent butterflies about in her chest. He tore his eyes away from it to look at her.

" It's a model of the Orloj...The um, Prague old town hall clock." He began in an excited tone.

"It's an astronomical clock, so here, that's the month, this is the hour, these are zodiac symbols, these indicate the location of the sun and the phases of the moon. Oh, and this ring of schwabacher numerals inside, that's old Czech time where 24 is the sunset.." He prattled on pointing to various parts of the face, Rosalee smiled, trying to keep up.

Monroe felt a bit dizzy, like perhaps he'd forgotten to breath, it was literally the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He quieted down and steadied his breath, reminding himself even happy excitement must be corralled. Seeming to sense this Rosalee set a steadying hand on his arm.

" My brother traded for this with an H. Jung in exchange for medicine." She explained.

Monroe scoffed and looked back to her," Must have been an awful lot of medicine. Look at this housing, this must be original. It doesn't look the same. " He pulled out his phone and showed her a computer model of the same clock moving.

" You have apps of old clocks on your phone?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

" Of course." He said matter-of-factly and held the phone up to compare. " Wow, what are you gonna do with it?" He said as he knelt down to look around for any maker's marks. Rosalee opened her mouth but he interrupted her with a stifled gasp, " That can't be right! If this maker's mark is true, this was made _before_ the Orloj. "

" Like a kind of preliminary model?" She asked.

" Maybe, it's not exactly common practice. But that makes it the oldest of it's kind," He said with a shrug.

Rosalee knelt beside him and put a hand softly on his shoulder. " Monroe, I think you should have it. " She said.

" Look at the figures, so exa-What? Oh Rosalee, I couldn't. This thing is... I can't even place it's value but it's a piece of history. You can't just give it away."

Rosalee smiled and leaned her forehead down on his shoulder, " That's why I want you to have it. It's much better off with you. You know how to take care of things." she lifted her face to look at his, he was looking at her with his mouth open.

" I do?" he managed.

" Yes, you do." She said, leaning forward to place a kiss on his cheek. It was then that he realized she was no longer talking about the clock.

* * *

**The Orloj clock I referenced is a real thing, I suggest checking out the wikipedia page and a video of it's motion, it's very cool.**


End file.
